The Detroit Red Wings, led by GM Ken Holland, wanted a right-shooting offensive defenseman.
On the first day of the NHL's 2015-16 free agency period, Holland and the Wings got themselves a right-shooting offensive defenseman in the form of Mike Green.
TSN's Bob McKenzie was the first to report that the two sides had come to an agreement on a three-year pact. ESPN's Pierre LeBrun revealed that the annual average value of the deal is $6 million.
For the Wings and new head coach Jeff Blashill, this plugs a big hole that former head coach Mike Babcock had struggled to fill in the Wings lineup. Detroit and Holland were linked to any number of right-handed blueliners like Cody Franson ahead of the NHL trade deadline in March, but nothing ultimately came of it and the Wings did their best with what they could through their short playoff run.
Green, 29, finished last season for the Washington Capitals with 10 goals and 35 assists in 72 games. He's still a talented offensive player able to push the pace of play, but he simply hasn't been an elite player for several seasons now. He broke out in 2007-08 to the tune of 18 goals and 38 assists and added onto that the next season, posting 31 goals and 42 assists.
Unfortunately, since then it's all been downhill for Green and injuries and inconsistency pushed him to a third-pairing role for the Caps in 2014-15.
Elsewhere...
The Montreal Canadiens added some much-needed size up front by trading Brandon Prust to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for power forward in-the-making Zack Kassian and a fifth-round pick.
Kassian, 24, has been a significant disappointment to this point in his still-young NHL career. He appeared in 42 games for the Canucks last season, recording 10 goals and six assists. The former first-round pick in the 2009 NHL Draft certainly has talent, but simply hasn't been able to take his ample potential and turn it into actual consistent on-ice production to this point.
The 31-year-old Prust is a hard-working player, but his importance to the Canadiens lineup had fallen off of late as younger players like Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan Gallagher took on more integral roles.
